Good Girl, Lucy!!

Ok, so this all just happened about 10 minutes ago...I was in the process of trying to wake up a sleepy Benjamin (anyone who has breastfed knows that sometimes you just need your baby to wake up and eat!) when I heard some funny Lucy noises coming from outback; kind of like some moaning or something. So I went to the screen door and Lucy had a DEAD GOPHER in her mouth! Of course, being the calm and rational thinking mother that I am, I flipped out! I wasn't about to open the screen and let Lucy inside with her "prize" (and she was clearly so proud of herself!) and she wasn't listening to me when I told her to drop it. The only thing I could think to do was call Jason's dad, Rich, to ask him what to do, since Jason's family has had dogs forever... and I ended up interrupting his business meeting. (I am sorry I interrupted your meeting, Rich, but thank you, thank you, thank you for taking my call!!!) He explained the step-by-step process of how to get Lucy to open her mouth but thankfully she decided to drop the gopher on her own will before I was brave enough to open the screen door to try it. I did manage to grab my camera, though, and snap a few shots.


I think there were actually two gopher kills last night/early this morning and Lucy just happened to stumble upon one of them. The gopher she discovered was completely intact but when I opened the backdoor that leads in the garage so I could grab the shovel to clean up Lucy's gopher, there was a pool of intestines on the walkway, which I am guessing came from another gopher but the killer (a hawk, maybe?? Does anyone know what kills gophers??) managed to make off with the body. Lucy was so excited and has been running though the house, something our normally laid-back dog doesn't do! I've been telling her what a good girl she is and gave her two treats. I am reminded of the stories that my mom tells of when she grew up in the country in the top northest corner of Maryland and their Cheasapeake Bay retreavier, Seaweed, would catch groundhogs and very lovingly bring them to the house as a gift for my grandmother...After all, we have been trying to get Lucy to catch a gopher; I just never thought she'd be successful!

And, on a side note, it is a really odd feeling to scoop up the body of a dead animal; it was really light and just felt lifeless and empty.

Ok, now I'm going to go make that baby eat :) Since he has, once again, slept through all of the exciting bits of living on Point Mugu!